Ms. Ruin's Playthings

"The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates." -Oscar Wilde

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Show Must Go On!

Why am I so captivated by buildings that lay in ruin?I don’t have a concrete answer, I can’t make statements to appease anyone…I can only tell you what I feel about these abandoned places that I have visited and captured through my lens.

I got my start in photography while grieving.I felt like I was carrying a graveside monument on my heart, I felt dead inside and I had shed so many tears and had so many moments of complete and sheer anguish that I couldn’t relate to anything but the dead, the forgotten, the abused and the abandoned.

I turned to my art at that time and decided that I was going to make a canvas –I just needed a picture of an actual graveside monument to help me depict my sadness.With camera in hand, I made my way into a beautiful cemetery on a bitter and cold January day.If I close my eyes I can hear the crunching of the grass below me as my tennis shoes crushed the ice that blanketed the Earth.I was alone in that large cemetery, one that went on and on –as far as the eye could see.I was drawn to one monument and then another and another.Many of them sat there for nearly a hundred years and longer.I imagined how beautiful they must have been 70-80-90-100 plus years ago.But now they were broken, faded, worn, and tattered…and to me they were still beautiful.I put the viewfinder to my right eye and began snapping away.I would pause and put the camera down from time to time to catch my breath and cry, but it was a different kind of crying –it was a healing sob.

I soon started sharing my images with loved ones and they were quite amazed.I had dabbled in photography in the past, but not to this extent.In fact, I don’t think I have a knack for photography but through my despair I harnessed something that not only moved me, but it moved others.And when I step foot in a cemetery or a rundown building, I’m able to “go there” –to that place where I’m still searching for tranquility, not always for myself but sometimes for others.Some have described a lot of my images as “haunting”.I can see why they would portray my art in that manner.But to me they are solace, they are quietude, and they are a glimpse of hope in a place where unyielding objects have sanctioned the darkness against their own will.

Who knew that I could inspire others when all I was trying to accomplish was peace within me?I have not and probably will not share all of the intimate details of why I photograph the things I photograph…the headstones, the monuments, the dilapidated buildings and homes.Rest assured that my photos speak for themselves.

With all that said, here are some images I captured over Christmas of an abandoned high school auditorium in Premont, Texas.Row after row of unoccupied seats and boisterous objects…forgotten by so many, but center stage through these eyes.

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Ms. Ruin

I’m Sonia, aka Ms. Ruin. I am the Owner, Manager, and Janitor of Ms. Ruin’s Playthings and Through These Eyes Visual Art. I am a native Texan from the Rio Grande Valley but currently call Dallas home. I am funny, hot-tempered, quirky, opinionated, creative, loving and much more. Discover the many sides of me through my images and words.

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Through These Eyes

"I find beauty where most just see atrophy." -Sonia Hernandez Doneghue